Highlighted talks and speakers

While every talk or workshop is worth seeing, the content team cherrypicked seven for you. Under this list, you can find some of the projects that are at SHA as well. Full programme is on https://program.sha2017.org/

Cryptowars 2.0: Lessons from the past, for the present

The inventor of PGP technology, Phil Zimmermann, brings us important lessons from the 90's, where he was front and center in the political struggle over citizen cryptography. Ultimately, he helped "win" that battle in bringing industry in alignment with civil society. Now, with Trump, May and Macron demanding backdoors, we're in the same fight all over again--only with greater urgency. Phil takes us through the old cryptowars with focus and lessons on how to win this time around too.

Resisting Algorithms of Mass Destruction

Big Data is becoming the holy grail for governments looking for immediate savings, future spending control, and saleable assets. Australia decided to go after their most vulnerable citizens in one such attempt, and Lyndsey Jackson fought back--with the Government’s own Drupal distribution! Within a few days after the #notmydebt campaign launched, the policy began to unravel, the debt collectors were pulled back and a Senate inquiry was triggered. Yet, pressure to use such tools is only mounting around the world and Lydsey will share strategies on how to fight back.

Rooting the MikroTik: Can my router play Für Elise and be part of a botnet?

Have you ever wondered how the cheap, seemingly nameless devices in our homes often end up becoming part of worldwide nefarious botnets? In his talk on the MikroTik, security researcher Kirils Solovjovs discusses getting at the Linux operating system running behind layers of obfuscation. Sometimes for hilarious purposes, like making your router play songs, but often for more nefarious purposes, this talk covers the interesting intersection of poorly implemented, cheap, and increasingly ubiquitous network hardware.

Robot Big Brother: The Future of AI in Attacks and Surveillance

How can you protect your privacy when Big Brother has advanced Artificial Intelligence? Peter Eckersley, the Chief Computer Scientist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will show us new types of attacks and surveillance made possible by advances in Artificial Intelligence, along with strategies for the computer security community to protect our privacy from the intelligent machines.

Cutting off a Call Center Con in Calcutta: A Trip to India

What started with a simple scam phone call eventually led to a cybercrime take down in Calcutta! Bart Roos takes us behind the scenes of a call center in India that placed over 5 million calls to Dutch phone numbers, employing 60 people and defrauding millions from Europeans. Gain insight into the social engineering techniques that are used by the scammers and how he and a Dutch TV crew tracked down the call center kingpin.

Hack North Korea:

The Human Rights Foundation will show us how information is currently smuggled into the most closed regime in the world, through a mix of helium-nitrogen balloons, Flash Drives, DVDs, shortwave radio and others. Their planned workshop will help educate and improve current techniques to break the regime’s information monopoly and accelerate the freedom of information.

Digital dissent in Latin America

How do you organize online in places where not everyone is connected and net neutrality never existed? Turns out, lots of ways! Gisela Perez de Acha from Derechos Digitales will discuss iniatives ranging from ciberfeminist collectives to mesh networks and how they inform and protect protest movements in the region

Projects

Several villages (the subcamps by people from around the world) have interesting projects - and most of them bring beautiful decorations, and fancy self-made light shows that make SHA one of the wildest things you can see at night.

Some examples of (user-contributed) projects:

Badge. We created our own digital badge with an e-ink display and wifi. Visitors can create their own apps for the badge.

Users are adding new projects to the camp wiki: watch the list. https://wiki.sha2017.org/w/Projects.

Joining the event as press

During your visit, a volunteer can guide you. These guides are knowledgeable about the event, cool sites, the programme and the hackere scene. In our experience, scrolling past just the highlights might take you well over two hours depending on your interests. You'll receive more practical information during the week of the event. Please specify other needs in your request.

Practicalities & rules

We appreciate the press and obviously care a lot about free speech. However, we - and our visitors! - like our privacy a lot. On the other hand, there are loads of people who want to show you their work and views.

Pre-register so we can give you access to the field in a swift manner. While on the field, you can announce yourself at the entrance and furthermore at the info desk.

A press badge & lanyard will help visitors (including volunteers) identify you as press. Wear your press badge so visitors know you’re with the press.

Questions? Want a tour of the field? Want to interview someone from the organisation, or one of the speakers?
Please walk by the info desk, contact press@sha2017.org or +31362020712. We have some volunteers willing to guide you for a tour.

Respect privacy: don’t make recognisable photo/video of our visitors, even when in the background. Some visitors have good reasons, such as personal safety, you can always ask for explicit permission. All speakers can be pictured during their talk - unless otherwise stated at the start of the talk. Do not record the faces of visitors without their explicit permission. We have visitors that have good reasons for anonymity. With people in the background, you could blur faces or position yourself so people are only filmed neck-down. Or, position yourself so that people would have to willingly pass your camera. Our press guides will help you with that.

Do not photograph or interview on site without talking with Press team first.

‘Villages’ (the sub-camps on the field) and workshops may deny you (or anyone else) entry.

We have a diverse group and value free speech. Statements by visitors, volunteers and speakers are their own, and often are not the consensus voice. The Press team is able to tell you which person speaks on behalf of the organisation.

General information

Still Hacking Anyway, or SHA2017, is a campsite organized for and by hackers. The camp takes place once every four years and attracts thousands of visitors from around the world. This year it serves as the biggest outdoor hacker event worldwide.

At the campsite hackers share their projects, views and can choose to visit over 120 talks about technology and society. The camp has various facilities aimed at hackers:

field-wide WiFi and network cables to every tent with a 100 gigabit internetconnection - the fastest ever on a campsite

a DECT system so you can use your cordless home phone to dial anyone on the field

a lot of power generators to provide every machine with enough power - including the electric cars that will be hacked. An experimental 42V smart grid will show how sustainable energy can be used at festivals and camps

a harbour for those who come by ship,

a game arcade with pinball machines and more - maintained by the hackers themselves

workshop facilties ranging from 3D-printers to SMD solderering tiny components or welding pieces of metal, to kitchens for 'food hacking'.

an electronic badge - hand-made badge for every visitor that can show custom information on the e-ink display, has a wifi connection and LEDs.

SHA is organized by a group of hackers who believe in world improvement through freedom of technology and information. As such SHA is characterized as five days of hands on tinkering and ideological debates. The camp gives the hacker community a major energy boost, which helps in this mission.

Being at SHA means being immersed in an exciting world filled with expertise, unique installations, discussions, works of art, blinking lights and various other impressive tech and horizon expanding world views. From lasers, to leds, to philosophy, to soldering: there is nothing like it.

Similar to the creative freedom spirit from festivals like Burning Man, a lot of visitors bring their own projects to show others and to collaborate on and create their own villages within the camp. Far more than only hacking security, we create things. Some villages are based on the many countries and cities people come from, others based on an interest like food, wearables, radio, hacking Tesla cars, drones, or being a parent and a hacker.

SHA welcomes everyone with an interest in technology and/or world improvement to join. The event is held from the 4th to 8th of August in Zeewolde, The Netherlands. Tickets are available at tickets.sha2017.org. More information is available at SHA2017.org.